Another Clueless Free Podcast Media Host Goes Out of Business

Opinion podcast app launched in November of 2015 and today they launched a free podcast media hosting. Reviews and descriptions went like this on the next web website, “I’ve seen nothing as simple and straightforward for getting started in podcasting as Opinion. It’s still iOS-only, which is something the Seedcamp-backed startup will need to address, and editing lacks finesse (no ability to fade music out, for example) but there’s a really great product coming together here.”

So I reached out to them with my criteria.

Unlimited bandwidth and storage.

Stats

Support

The Ability to do a redirect and take my subscribers with me (very important).

The co-founder replied. Here is the exchange:

here is an e-mail exchange I had with the co-founder:

Dave: I'm working on a story for mobile podcasting, and I found your site. If someone joins your site, and later wants to leave do you offer a 301 redirect so they can point their old RSS feed to their new RSS feed?

Why Didn't Opinion Podcast App Work?

On April 6th, 2016 they stated, “We felt that podcast discovery has remained broken over a decade now – and this is our answer to that. Curated editorial playlists, supported by great machine learning powered recommendations.” The problem with a company focusing on the “discovery problem” is for the end user, there is no discovery problem. The people who think there is a discovery problem are podcast creators because there are already 200 Fantasy Football shows, and when you type in “Fantasy Football” their show doesn't show up. The end user has no problem finding a show. In my opinion, the discovery problem is finding a good show. So you focused on a problem that doesn't exist.

When a company uses a free blogging tool for their blog – that's a RED FLAG. It doesn't build confidence in your brand.

Free Media Hosting has been tried multiple times, and if someone gets big enough to get sponsors – they leave. The thing that the hosting companies plan on making money (a cut of sponsorship) they never see.

Bandwidth is not free. So when you brag that you had 700 hours of content put out in one day (for 100,000 users, that is .42 minutes) that bandwidth is not free. Someone needs to pay for that.

The company (in my opinion) jumped on podcasting because it was “hot” and tried to make a buck with a bunch of programmers who OBVIOUSLY didn't understand the front or backend of podcasting. This is like hiring a football coach who has only played soccer. Similar field, but different game.

Are You Listening Anchor.fm Users?

Anchor is free. They say in the future they will split the profits. Forgive me for being a stickler for math, but 50% of free is still 0.

While they do provide redirects, they OWN YOUR FEED. So when the new statistics come out later in 2017, you won't be able to see them. They are not a real podcast host.

Anchor.fm may be a fun way to interact with your audience, but I WOULD NOT build my podcast on Anchor.fm. I would give them another two years before they fold.

Full disclosure, after being a customer for 10 years, I am now an employee of Libsyn. People say, “Oh you think Libsyn.com is the best because you work for them.” To that I answer, “No, because Libsyn.com is the best – I work for them.”

About The Author

My name is Dave Jackson I am an award-winning podcaster who has been podcasting since 2005.
I'm am a featured/keynote speaker at events, author of the book More Podcast Money, and I served as the Director of Podcasting for the New Media Expo.
I am best known for founding the School of Podcasting and help hundreds of podcasters launch successful podcasts